Brussels, 16/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - In 2012, emissions from some 12,000 power plants and manufacturing installations in the EU taking part in the emissions quota trading system (ETS) dropped to 1,867 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (compared to 1,889 billion the previous year). This, according to data published on Thursday 16 May by the European Commission, is a 2% fall. Verified data on emissions appear in the national registers of EU member states. However, over one and the same year, the surplus of allowances has doubled.
“The good news is that emissions declined again in 2012. The bad news is that the supply-demand imbalance has further worsened in large part due to a record use of international credits. At the start of phase 3, we see a surplus of almost two billion allowances”, European Commission for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard said. In her view, “these facts underline the need for the European Parliament and Council to act swiftly on back-loading”.
Generally speaking, the ETS regulation has been respected as, in 2012, fewer than 1% of the installations taking part had not surrendered allowances covering all their 2012 emissions by the deadline of 30 April 2013. These installations are typically small and together account for less than 1% of emissions covered by the EU ETS. Aircraft operators responsible for over 98% of the 2012 aviation emissions covered by the EU ETS have successfully taken the necessary steps to date to comply with the EU ETS legislation.
At the end of 2011, the allowance surplus was some 950 million. At the end of 2012, this reached nearly 2 billion (a result of the record use of international credits, phase II allowances, unused quotas of the new entrant reserve, the sale of phase II allowances for generating funds for the NER 300 programme, and the early auctioning of phase III quotas. (AN/transl.jl)